Tag Archives: acting like a leader

President Donald Trump on Thursday denounced the removal of monuments to Confederate figures as “sad” and “so foolish:

“Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You can’t change history, but you can learn from it.”

Uhm.

“Beautiful statues and monuments.”

He is referring to memorials to Confederate leaders as if they were lawn decorations which, if taken away, would make my perfectly coiffed yard seem a little ‘less than’ compared to my neighbor’s yard.

Please don’t take way my hand made gnomes!

This is horrible.

Simply horrible.

The lack of any intellectual awareness from Donald J Trump continues to be stunning no matter how often we are exposed to it.

Despite what our 140 character intellectual-in-chief may suggest not all the 1,500 symbols of the Confederacy in public spaces <source: SPLC> are created equal — 718 are monuments.

Look.

No sane person blames Trump for a divided country … although one could argue he is clearly exacerbating division on what used to be clearly what was right and what is wrong … and dark skinned people versus white people.

Okay. He is exacerbating divisive thinking.

However.

What he is being blamed for is not offering moral leadership in the discussion.

If anything he is stripping the conversation of any morality to suggest a naked choice. If only it were that simple. His vagueness begs people to fill in the hollowness with whatever nonsense they want to believe. And then, to make it worse, he offers his own intellectually vapid nonsense.

This is not a vapid simple issue but I will still offer how Bruce would resolve this:

This statue thing is not a democrat versus republican issue it is a country issue. We should celebrate soldiers who died fighting bravely for what they believed was right.

We should never celebrate the leaders who made bad decisions, no matter how much we want to justify their difficult personal choices, which created the deaths of individual brave soldiers. If I go to Europe and world war 1 battlefields I see memorials to dead soldiers on both sides … but I don’t see statues of German generals.

oddly … in a world in which we throw around absurd words like ‘snowflakes’ and ‘politically correct’ and ‘erasing history’ far too often … we seem to forget there are winners and there are losers.

We should celebrate winners, particularly the ones who stood for something right, rather than celebrate losers <who stood for something wrong>. I want statues of Abraham Lincoln … not Jefferson Davis. I want statues of Grant not Lee.

Statues dedicated to solders bravery stay up … no matter which side they were on.

Statues that celebrate leaders of the ‘wrong side’ should be in museums as ‘lessons in history.’ I could argue any confederate statue erected in the 1910’s & 1920’s should simply be destroyed because their intent was to celebrate segregation <and this would eliminate something like 50% of monuments>.

“Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments.”

Trump is an idiot.

Okay.

He is stupid.

Yes. I just said stupid.

I say stupid in this case because not only is he intellectually hollow & amoral he also cannot seem to swim out of the shallow end of the thinking pool to see how he could appeal to the people who deemed him worthy of voting for him … and elevating them and their thinking.

He continues to miss opportunities to make a point with regard to what he suggested he stood for <the forgotten everyday schmuck>. In this situation if he stood up and was able to put any semblance of a thought together in his word salad way he would say “the everyday soldier who served bravely should never be dishonored by the flaws of their leaders. Families sent their sons and many paid the ultimate price bravely. Memorials should stand to honor their families, them and their choice to serve. Statues of their leaders, who led them for a cause which was not for what makes America great, deserve to only remain in museums so that we can learn the lessons of their mistakes.”

While this is an incredibly complex issue, taking statues down isn’t about rewriting country history … it is about rewriting family choices and family history. If I pull them down indiscriminately I dishonor families who lost sons and take away a part of their personal history.

We need to separate the individual sacrifices made, honor them, and dishonor the larger cause and leaders who propagated it.

Sigh.

We will inevitably see hundreds of intellectual, and semi-intellectual, articles written about culture, the civil war and how a country faces its demons. People will spin this so many different ways trying to justify Trump words or demonize Trump lack of thinking you will get dizzy.

Stop spinning and take a deep breath and think with a little clarity.

I have stated ad nausea, this should be a debate of ideas and thinking because, in the end, the solution shouldn’t be some simplistic ‘take them down’ or ‘leave them up’ but rather an overall understanding and semi-alignment on the purpose of wherever we land decision-wise as a country.

And maybe that is my larger point today … Trump is not leading the discussion … he is offering the simplistic tripe of some guy on his 6th beer at the corner of the bar.

Donald J Trump is not just a horrible president … he is a horrible man … a horrible leader … and I even, at times, think he is a horrible American.

Complex issues demand leaders to not offer simplistic tripe which appeals to one sliver of America.

Complex issues demand leaders to be their best and appeal to the better aspects of people … and America in this case.

In business … complex issues demand business leaders to develop solutions which unite an organization and show a way forward.

And let me use business leadership to head off my good friends who will send me notes about my ‘white guilt’ and ‘bleeding heart liberal inclinations.’

I am president of a 400 person company. I just told about 75 of my employees, me <an old white guy> told them, that they should lighten up and look at those statues as beautiful statements of our history blessing the appearance of our public parks.

“… start a conversation within their beautiful shadows.”

Uhm.

Seems to me about 75 of my employees may look at me and say “fuck you old white man” which doesn’t necessarily breed organizational unity.

Look.

I am an everyday schmuck. I think the last Confederate statue I can actually remember paying attention to was in New Orleans <which means I have most likely walked by a dozen others and never even noticed>. But that’s not the point … I am not a leader nor am I the leader of a 330 million person country.

Complex issues reside in the deep end of the intellectual pool and good leaders learn to swim well enough to venture to that end of the pool. Trump can only stand in the shallow end.

“… disgusted, and everyone needs to do better than this infantile bullshit because I for one have had it with senseless hostility … it’s not activism, it’s not in support of anything, it’s nothing but sickness and cruelty. I’ve had it with people behaving like … animals.

Get it together and grow up.”

—-

Kat Timpf

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Your opinion is not my reality.

–

Steve Maraboli

=======================

Ok.

The last couple of days in America have been sad days.

There are some real douchebags out there in the world and sometimes it seems like their little douchebag club is growing.

On the front lines of this douchebaggery are the ones who marched on Friday night <the “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia> with torches.

On the front lines of is douchebaggery are the members of the KKK, neo-Nazis, and other armed militia groups who walked the Charlottesville streets on Saturday adorned with Confederate flags and in full Nazi regalia.

To me … these are people who want to see the world burn.

To me … these are people who don’t really give a damn about a larger sense of humanity but rather only seek dominance.

To me … these are the people who, quite disturbingly, showcase the trappings of 1930’s Nazi torch bearing marches and KKK torch bearing gatherings … in other words … they reflect the trappings of a miserable point in history and humanity.

Now.

It certainly doesn’t help that the President continues to showcase an extreme pettiness, an extreme lack of cultural & society insight and an extreme inability to articulate the most basic accepted norms of a civil society … which encourages douchebaggery.

All that said.

While I am a relentless critic with regard to President Trump’s lack of leadership skills I will not be today. Yesterday I just saw a man who is what he is and you just cannot ask more of someone who is just capable of who and what they are.

He will never be inspirational. He doesn’t have an inspirational bone in his body. And you know what? That’s okay.

It’s frustrating to watch <because I want more>.

It’s sad to watch <because I expect more>.

But what is most frustrating from a business guy’s perspective <me> are the missed opportunities. This administration misses opportunity after opportunity to … well … lead. They miss opportunity after opportunity to forward their own message in a ‘unity’ type way.

It is frustrating because while I don’t think Donald J has one inspirational bone in his body, that he is painfully transactional and his sweet spot is vague divisiveness … I do believe he could stand by his message and do so in a way that can … well … appeal to some of the greater aspects within America.

He is much more comfortable, and better, at delivering a self promoting message <what he has done, how good he is and hyperbole offered in a fantastically third person way>.

In general he is, 95% of the time, incoherent and rambling and, the worst of all, vague. Vague is horrible the majority of the time but in a moment which people seek clarity it is the worst because more often than not it falls on ears as platitudes and creates spaces in between for people to second guess and find what they want to hear.

When forced out of his ‘vagueness’ comfort zone he uses words like he is checking boxes.

I would argue that his most important speeches are a reflection of how he runs his businesses – technically within the lines. He uses many of the right words but they always seem to edge along the razor thin line of right versus wrong. One of Trump’s most effective defenders on TV, conservative Ben Ferguson, is spectacular in his technical defense. He takes Trump words and places them on a blank piece of paper and says “what is wrong with these words?” or “we should view these words literally.”

Well played on his part.

I have two words for him – Fresh Eggs.

Huh?

When I was at J Walter Thompson one of our most famous presentations was called Fresh Eggs. Client after client we would take a couple of minutes when discussing communication and how to effectively communicate thoughts to show them ‘Fresh Eggs.’

Simplistically … I can design the words ‘fresh eggs’ with some fancy font perfectly art directed on some computer graphics program and print it off … or I can take a battered piece of water stained cardboard and hand paint Fresh Eggs on it.

The same words placed in completely different context communicating two different ‘feelings.’

That is the difference between a Trump technical pragmatic delivery of some words and words well delivered.

It would behoove Ben, as well as Trump administration speechwriters & advisers, to think about that a second.

Regardless.

All that means is that Trump offers his speechwriters and advisors ‘negative space.’ Spaces in which you shouldn’t ask him to offer words or thoughts. That is okay. If it were me … I can deal with what I know and can see. It is the shit I don’t know and can’t see that kills me.

And this is where I focus my criticism. The speechwriters and advisers. They know the negative space and are intimately involved with it. In addition they know that there are certain “moments” which provide opportunities for the president. The opportunities don’t have a rhythm nor do they arise according to plan but opportunities are opportunities and you either seize them or lose them.

They need to recognize that Trump will instinctively gravitate to his ‘positive space’ any time he can. For example … in his Charlottesville ‘speech’ he gravitated to his positive space which is not only tone deaf but shows a complete lack of linkage to anything and everything he has said before:

The president, in his responses, bemoaned that the clashes were happening when “our country is doing so well in so many ways”, citing low unemployment and the renegotiation of trade deals. He noted: “We have so many incredible things happening in our country, so when I watch Charlottesville, to me it’s very, very sad.”

How could his advisors have missed he would naturally do this?

He has been the ‘carnage’ king. America is in a shithole and it is up to me to fix the shithole Obama put us in. He has been saying this for almost 2 years. Charlottesville was a perfect example of his self-proclaimed shithole that he, and only he, can pull us out of.

I would have given him some words <because I know this is his positive space> to exploit his whole shithole narrative.

Look.

I think Trump is a horrible hollow leader but even I need him to do well and I would give him words to do his job well because … well … country above any individual.

His advisors and speechwriters are failing him in that they seem to not be able to bridge what he is capable of doing to words which make America see what they are capable of.

Lastly.

Trump and Charlottesville are intertwined. I am not suggesting he is solely responsible for things like Charlottesville but I will suggest, as president, I want him to assume personal responsibility for Charlottesville.

———–

“I think that what we are witnessing here has always been simmering beneath the surface, and now has been emboldened and enabled by the Trump administration’s politics and rhetoric.”

Steve Thomas, from Lynchburg, Virginia, who also protested against the far-right groups

—————-

He needs to understand that he is supposed to be the face of America and that what he says, or doesn’t say, reflects the … well … face of America. This is the burden of his responsibility. He needs to understand that his words really do matter and that:

We seem to have no problem, as a country, condoning violence by black people.

We seem to have no problem, as a country, condoning violence by Muslim people.

We seem to struggle a bit, as a country, to condone violence by white people.

Anyway.

I know what Trump was trying to say but the way he said it made it sound like, in America, all ideologies are created equal. That neo-Nazis have as much right to exist as anyone else and it is only when they are violent that they become abhorrent.

I personally don’t think he, and his advisors, should act surprised that a lot of people find that unacceptable.

I am not a speechwriter but I do offer some words I believe he could have said which would have captured his empty platitude-like thinking with regard to America but still offered some real nods to real issues that we real everyday schmuck-like Americans should be thinking of.

—————–

<offered in as many Trump-like words I can stomach trying to offer>

Instead of offering what will now be referred to for history as the “many sides speech” I would have offered an “all lives smatter” speech.

——

I would like to take a minute and talk with Americans about Charlottesville because this is bigger than Charlottesville and it is not something we can ignore nor should we ignore it.

First.

Our constitution is a beautiful thing which should not be used for ugly things.

Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of violence.

Freedom of speech doesn’t mean the one who shouts the loudest or tries to ‘look the most powerful’ is the rightest or the ‘winner.’

Freedom of speech is freedom to use words, not fists and bottles and carrying shields and clubs.

Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom to hate but freedom to listen, argue and find opportunities to love and unite despite disagreeing.

I condone freedom of speech but do not condone, in the strongest possible terms, violence and hate using freedom of speech as an excuse.

Second.

We lost 3 lives today.

One person using their freedom of speech and two people who were serving to protect freedom of speech.

I offer you three words today.

All lives matter.

That doesn’t mean black people do not have real issues we need to discuss.

That doesn’t mean white people do not have real issues we need to discuss.

That doesn’t mean any race, religion, gender do not have real issues we need to discuss.

No person should be forgotten and no issue should be forgotten.

We, as Americans, should be united if not simply because:

All issues matter because all Americans matter.

All issues are important because all Americans matter.

And all issues should not be forgotten, should be heard and should be discussed … because all lives matter.

This weekend, what we saw in Charlottesville, is wrong. It is bad. Not just because there was violence, not just because there was bigotry and hatred but because it was an example of where it seems like everyone, American citizens forgot to understand and believe that America is great because Americans believe all lives matter.

We forgot all issues matter.

We forgot hatred has no place in what makes America great.

I stated on day one I would stand for the forgotten American. And today I stand in front of you to say that I will stand for the forgotten Americans, all Americans, and the forgotten & ignored issues … but I will not stand for violence, bigotry and hate.

As your president I will stand for all lives and all issues.

I say that as today we had gathered here in Maryland to discuss that all veterans lives matter and their issues mattered enough that we did something.

<something like that>

Note: this maybe took me 15 minutes to scribble out … it isn’t right but, surely, a professional speechwriter could offer the President something similar & right, don’t you think?

———————————————

This weekend watching Charlottesville was … well … just bad. Just as I stated when discussing some of the Trump campaign events … it isn’t what America s supposed to be. That doesn’t mean it isn’t what America is … but … I tend to believe it is not what we want to be.

I wanted someone to have the moral fortitude to stand up and say “America, stop. Starting today we need to stop violence and start talking civilly. Start admitting all colors, genders, races and religions have issue they want to discuss, and should be heard, and stop denying everyone has a voice at the table.”

Yes.

I am frustrated the Trump administration misses opportunity after opportunity to offer us not only the high road but the light to show us a better way.

But yesterday put a period on my belief that Trump is what he is … and we should stop expecting something that he is not.

It is what it is.

And now it is up to the people around him to accept he is what he is and provide him the proper tools, words & thoughts <which he cannot come up with on his own>, so that we will be … well … make America great.

“Hey, I’m using Guam as a token in a game of chicken with North Korea and as a result putting thousands of your constituents at risk but, hey, at least you’re famous!”

Donnie Two Scoops

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Ok.

This whole North Korea and United States thing is dangerously bizarre. The most bizarre thing is the consistency with which Donald J Trump has offered us … from the time he became a candidate until today. He has consistently cared about one thing – how he looks, how he is perceived and how his ‘brand’ is viewed.

He is a self stylized ‘big brained, strong, best whatever’ brand <with, as we would say in the marketing business, dubious functional capabilities, i.e., not really sure it does what it is supposed to do when you buy it>.

Everything he does and says is meant to meet one objective – his brand.

Bizarrely, and justifiably, everyone takes all of his word salad and what we perceive as his thinking and parse it all out with regard to “what does this mean for America and how is this in America’s best interest.”

This is misguided and, worse, it normalizes his behavior & words by suggesting there is something there other than his own brand building.

Everyone should never forget … and “best.”

Period.

Full stop.

Think about it for one second within this whole bizarre situation.

Guam is a potential target <only because North Korea couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn if asked to> … but the Guam governor will be famous! … and rich! … and applauded for that huuuuuuuge boost in tourism <without having to spend any money>!

That represents the thought process of the United States president – he sees only trees <things that are representative of what he believes make up his brand forest>.

“Don’t worry about a thing. They should have had me eight years ago…I have to say, Eddie, you’re going to become extremely famous. All over the world they’re talking about Guam and they’re talking about you.

And your tourism, I can say this, your tourism is going to go up like tenfold with the expenditure of no money, so I congratulate you.

It looks beautiful, you know I’m watching … it’s such a big story in the news.”

————-

call transcript of <President> Donald J Trump to Governor of Guam

Well.

I am sometimes stunned by how much we are willing to turn ourselves into pretzels normalizing some incredibly bizarre behavior and words.

It is like we spend hours sifting through the verbal garbage for the one or two items which we can wash off and show that it wasn’t all garbage. And all the while we do that we seem to overlook the person who threw out the garbage … who is most likely standing in the window of their house chuckling “look at all those people paying attention to my garbage.”

Pick your Trump interview, press conference or tweet. He is consistent with creating a brand image using an inconsistent message <garbage>.

This is not only nuts but bizarre.

Yes.

North Korea is a threat … but think of them as a threat like … well … maybe Trump would have been had he gone to a public school and had no money. A little bully wishing to be with the big kids and big money. The only thing this little bully sincerely believes in is himself … not real solutions nor doing the right thing.

The only right thing to do is to build his brand.

And while everyone casts about for ways to explain his ‘unpredictability’ I would argue he has always been predictably consistent in that he will do and say anything that he believes builds his brand.

And, no, no one should confuse this consistency with consistency in policy … because he has no policy nor ideology beyond ‘ideology of self.”

Just think about what I just said as you ponder “I want to ‘de-nuke’ the world <yet I want the largest nuclear capabilities in the world, expanding them, and willing to let Russia upgrade its nuclear power and, of course, Israel can keep its ‘nukes’>. Or how about … well … repeal Healthcare … oh … no … repeal & replace … oh … no … ‘may be un-Republican to say but we need to take care of everyone’ … oh … no … ‘let Obamacare just die.’

Pick your policy issue. He is consistent with his brand and inconsistent with anything else.

I am not diminishing the North Korea issue but I am suggesting, in this case, the only thing that matters to Trump is that he gets to brandish “my generals” and toy soldiers and ‘nukes’ because he likes to associate his brand with them.

And, all the while real global challenges are being discussed, Donald J. spews a verbal smorgasbord of incoherent vaguery which even the everyday schmuck like me views as “sounds strong … but what exactly does he mean?”

It sounds an awful lot like grade school playground strutting & bluster.

That said.

I cannot remember a time when China suggested our president was a victim of “emotional venting” but I also cannot remember a time when we had a president who put his brand above … well … reality.

<sigh>

I imagine the difficult in all of his is that Donnie Two Scoops has his own alternative reality in which he has attached his brand to America itself in his own head and, therefore, justifies all of his brand behavior as “representative of the America brand.”

I stated this during the primary phase of his whole sad Trump election story that someone needed to separate Trump from “America” … and no one did.

This is nuts.

Nuts with a dangerous edge.

This all feels like it is one big reality show. I am not suggesting North Korea doesn’t represent a real potential threat <although you don’t see South Korea, China, Japan, etc gearing up for any foreseeable threat beyond their normal status> but this all feels like Donnie is treating this like a great big TV show where he gets great ratings and everyone tunes in every night just to see him.

The problem is that unlike a TV show which has an executive producer who is crafting the entire scenario and scripting it out … the other main person on this show doesn’t have the TV script. Therefore within the reality TV show Trump is producing there is an unknown. Within that unknown resides the unforeseen, the human error in judgement and the misunderstanding.

On a TV show that can create ratings and little downside … and certainly no downside where people can actually physically get hurt.

In the real world this can create ratings but offers a potential huge downside where a lot of people can actually physically get hurt.

Look.

I do not really think nuclear war is likely. The big boy at the table <or ‘the principal at the grade school playground’>, China, has basically taken that off the table by a simple stance … “North Korea, if you attack you are on your own, and USA, if you act preemptively, we will consider that an attack on us.”

That said.

Can anyone really say it’s not a possibility at all?

Nope.

And that is nuts.

And it is on the edge of insanity because it well … walks like a reality TV duck, sounds like a reality TV duck which makes me think this whole Trump TV bluster and posturing is … well … a reality TV duck.

And while Trump supporters will come out of the woodwork crafting semi-logical scenarios in which Donnie Two Scoops words are strategic and smart and necessary is there anybody who really doesn’t believe the rest of the world is looking at America going “WTF.”

Or, as one of the more conservative websites stated this morning:

Sanity.

Is there anybody who doesn’t believe that world leaders are whispering behind our backs now, discussing “the United States problem,” and wondering if this great experiment of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people has gone off the rails?

This North Korea problem is complex and while we can blame past presidents if we want <which is wasted energy> or want to wave our hands in the air moaning “why do I have to deal with his mess made by someone else” I want a president who doesn’t really care how we got here and why we are in the situation we are in … I want a president to … well … be sane. Be mature. And be better than the everyday schmuck like me.

I want a president less concerned with trees and more concerned with the forest … specifically the USA and global forest and not his own trees.

I almost called this “day <fill in the blank>of the shitshow” but I didn’t.

Look.

I am no genius but at the Trump 100 day mark I suggested the second 100 days would look a lot like the first 100 days <inconsistent, ineffective & incompetent> for several very sound, rational reasons. And as we close in on 200 days … well … I look like a genius. And … just to share my conclusion if you want to stop reading now … I envision the next 100 days just as hollow as the last 200 days for almost exactly the same reasons.

Until the main reason is solved <quality people in necessary staff positions> the lean, mean and obscenely incompetent current white house staff will remain incredibly competent at … well … doing nothing truly meaningful <but maintaining an appearance of disruptive thinkers>.

I will ignore the tweets … entertaining but absurd.

I will ignore the unnecessary hyperbole … entertaining and absurd.

I will ignore the rambling nonsensical monologues … not as entertaining and even more absurd.

I will ignore the bizarre foreign policy steps … entertaining to watch but absurdly dangerous in reality.

However … I will pay attention to leadership and results.

I have to assume despite the fact the President claims a finely tuned white house which has done more than any other resident since maybe FDR … this whole adventure has not been exactly how he planned it to go.

For someone who likes winning I am not so sure this kind of ‘winning’ is what he had in mind.

For someone who claims to be ‘the best negotiator’ <or at least better than anyone in government prior to him> I am not so sure this kind of ‘negotiating results’ or even public glimpses into his negotiating skills is what he had in mind.

For someone who claimed “I alone can fix it” I am not so sure this is the kind of ‘fixing’ he had in mind.

==============

“Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully or write poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks.”

—

Donald Trump

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What has the administration done?

Well, yes, in the first 6 months some things truly have been done.

First, I will ignore the stock market. As every president prior to this absurd one recognized … the market has a mind of its own and, in general, ignores presidents <so attaching yourself to it and ts results is like pegging my success to some squirrel in my backyard>. But even with its general disregard for a President what the stock market has really learned is that Trump will not do as much as some had hoped for … and others feared. In the stock market’s mind this is called ‘clarity’ or certainty … and markets thrive when uncertainty diminishes <because then it is all about trends and not surprises>. Trump will not like to hear it but the central banks control the fate of stock markets more than he will ever want <so he should actually be cuddling up to central bank more>.

Second, I will ignore the Supreme Court Justice nomination because this was a “gimmee putt” for any Republican who stumbled their way into the oval office.

Just as I wouldn’t have credited Hillary this “win” was owned by whatever party won the white house not the individual in the white house.

Anyway.

The first 200 days.

Yes. Things done. I would call it “tinkering under the hood” stuff. Some executive orders, some cutting back on regulations, maybe taking some, what they would consider, unnecessary pieces out so the engine can run a little more effectively.

Most things have been ‘destruction’ type actions and not construction type actions.

And none of them are the bigger things which make radical shifts with regard to the country’s well-being.

Here is the problem with the Trump administration just tinkering under the hood. During the campaign and continuing into the first 200 days the administration, and Trump in particular, have claimed I have a Hyundai and I deserve a Ferrari.

Therefore, to date, they are just giving me a better running Hyundai and they still haven’t shown me <a> what my Ferrari is going to look like or <b> when I may expect to see my Ferrari in my driveway or even <c> what they are going to do to actually make it possible to have a Ferrari.

That alone makes for a fairly hollow first 200 days.

But why haven’t we received even those basic, what I would call, “map of things you should expect” stuff?

To date this administration has been defined by … well … a fog of dysfunction driven by a clammy inconsistent breeze called Donald J Trump which leaves us all feeling a little uneasy that something bad awaits us in the fucking clammy fog.

Look.

While I buy he is transactional … he is an inconsistent transactional person. He shows no sign of cohesive thinking, shows poor instincts and a complete lack of impulse control <which derails any necessary momentum every sane business leader knows you need to have to sustain any larger idea> and an extraordinarily immature naïve view of how the world really works <business, government and global> all buried in a pea like brain that does not envision what the end game looks like.

I score the last 200 days as relatively hollow and, once again, I see no signs of changes needed to get us out of hollow in and into substance.

I personally do not see him changing <becoming more engaged, take on more responsibility and try and lead rather than criticize> therefore the administration will live and die by the people who will end up in the administration <assuming they ever do join up>. Trump really has no policy – which is needed to lead without actually having to hold everyone’s hand — therefore he needs to <a> hire people who understand policy and can sell policy and <b> accumulate a group of policy makers who are aligned <not by loyalty but rather by ideology> so that the end puzzle gets built so it looks like a frickin’ puzzle and not just a bunch of random policies which look good in isolation but crappy when viewed together.

There needs to be a team, not a loyal team, but a qualified team for any chance to get out of this hollow hole we seem to get deeper and deeper into.

Yeah yeah yeah. Trumpeteers will come out of the woodwork and suggest “this is not Trump’s fault.”

They would be wrong.

I have been in so many companies that have told me to hire only to have my candidates get mired in the HR administrative mud for so long you are fairly sure they were just humoring you into believing you could actually hire someone that I can certainly feel the pain of hiring and open positions.

But this is not the case.

The congress has been slower in confirming Trump candidates but it is not because of democrats or congress inefficiency it is because Trump nominees are slow to complete paperwork or have to deal with conflict issues <they are often non-traditional appointees>. In addition the president has been even slower to send nominations to Congress.

The Trump administration is not eliminating the positions, Trump is just deciding not filling them <I assume he is not convinced they would actually provide value>.

Sure … there is a legitimate truth that government should be streamlined <positions eliminated> but not nominating needed people to implement your transactional ideology simply means … well … none of your frickin’ transactions get completed <and a business person of any competence whose career has been built off of transactions, and not vision, would know this>.

Anyway.

A couple things that become concerning beyond the staffing challenge as we move on to day 201 and beyond:

They market problems not solutions

I was foolish enough to subscribe to the White House Daily email. I will admit.

If I read it every day I would most likely slit my wrists. Every single email highlights a problem … disaster, failing, crime, horrible trade deals, being taken advantage of, the list goes on and on and on.

Shit.

In one email they actually suggested one of their own departments, The Congressional Budget Office, yeah … one of their OWN DEPARTMENTS … did not know how to do their job <… dude … they report to you …>.

They peddle problems and diminish people.

So far over 200 days they have invested 198 days <I made that number up> pounding us that we are living in a shithole created by shit-for-brains people … and, yet, they have offered us solutions worth a shit.

That’s not what leaders do … even transactional leaders. Even transactional leaders stand up and show us a list of the transactions we are aiming to get done. Some leaders <most in fact> would think of this as “how you should judge me” information.

This criticism is not about the 330 million citizens of the country <albeit we would benefit from knowing his> this is more about getting shit done in the next 100, 200 and 300 days. The people who have to do the work, do the policy, will be significantly more effective if you hand out a project list of shit I want to get done. if you have smart qualified people they will be like ants on sugar <all over it>.

I am not suggesting we need an administration that is in the “unicorns & rainbow” business but I do know the country would benefit if the administration would peddle solutions rather than problems but the administration itself would also benefit because … well … that is how good organizations actually get their employees to do good shit. It would be nice if they stopped thinking in terms of being in the destruction business and thought more about being in the construction business with regard to ideas & policies.

Without it … expect more empty ‘doom & gloom’ marketing of problems in the 100 days ahead.

Which leads me to …

Lack of vision

I hire managers to manage tactics … I hire leaders to share a vision. A transactional leader is a tactical leader.

And you can get away with that for a while but at some point the tactics need to fill some vision bucket <or they are simply scattered drops of water destined to dry up in the heat of time>.

Look.

I imagine the number one gripe against Obama was that he was too visionary and not tactical enough <in public>. But no one ever doubted his vision for America and Americans. People may have griped about some of the tactics but we always knew the ‘why’ of the tactical and transaction decisions. We bitched about ‘bad deals’ but understood why the deal was being pursued.

Without vision clarity 300 million plus people sit in their homes and go to work absent of really knowing “why.” Uhm. In the absence of why understanding everything begins to look random and people, in general, do not embrace random as a way of Life.

They need to address those 2 thing. Fast.

Those two things are going to haunt this presidency for 100’s of days unless they are addressed.

Those two things are basic Leadership 101 things.

I say that because while I am as detailed as possible with regard to how to fix the hollow presidency’s arc of behavior I remain concerned that the president, a self proclaimed successful business person, shows little signs he understands basic leadership behavior <and attitudes>. I admit … while I sensed his early on I never expected him to be this inept at basic leadership skills.

Being the president is not the same as the hollow branding crap Trump has built his riches off of. Shit. A real business leader demands more knowledge than that. Leadership requires discipline, hard work, focus, at least a basic understanding of the details they want their organization to move forward with and, as Trump himself said, a willingness to get everybody in a room and hammer out a deal.

That’s leadership.

Through the first 200 days of Trump’s presidency … uhm … he has exhibited none.

That is all on him.

After 200 days the president has managed to showcase a stunning total lack of ability to lead. And I use ‘stunning’ because he actually has a Congress completely under Republican control.

This stunning lack of leadership actually has repercussions beyond how people like I will measure 100 days to come. While we will offer ‘what was done’ report cards ad nausea the ultimate measurement , and battle, will be over character – not tangible wins & losses..

I am fairly sure in the bible <Corinthians ?> it says something like: Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

I state that because over the first 200 days there has been a stunning lack of truth coming from this White House which appears to be a blatant attempt to corrupt the character of good men & women.

I have a thought piece coming up on how the Trump administration is building an alternative universe in a way that I am fairly sure not many of us in a free world have ever seen before <but I am familiar with it having read dozens of books on communist Soviet Union>.

They have subverted Fake News from meaning actually unsourced, completely made-up things like the Enquirer to news they simply do not like.

Transparency means sharing information only when asked and not done in a forthcoming way.

They have attempted to make honesty irrelevant by investing gobs of energy undermining anything & everything everyone else says <if no one is honest than honesty is in the eyes of the beholder>.

They have continued to construct such a stark alternative universe to what actually exists by using scraps of truth, using a language of their own making & using cult-like recruitment tactics so that normal everyday schmucks like you & I are offered such a stark contrast it becomes difficult to bridge between what they say and what we see.

In the end.

I will restate exactly what I said at the end of the 1st 100 days … suffice it to say that I see some fairly concerning hollowness. What I mean by that is after 100 days one could highlight a variety of empty spots which … well … will dog the administration from day 101 forward.

And while I would like to point out some specifics I think we would all like to let me conclude with the “issue to be resolved in order to eliminate future hollowness.”

I am not sure at 71 if Trump can actually attain what he really needs to be successful over the ensuing 100 day increments as a president – enlightenment.

The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.

–

Thomas Paine, A Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal on the Affairs of North America

Beyond all the bizarre tweets, inappropriate speeches and overall adolescent behavior … he is a painful amateur leader. Painful in that even I, who has led but not to this level, cringe almost every day at the amateur mistakes he makes as a leader.

This amateurishness is a disease stalking the hallways of the White House. I say that because while it is clear to everyone but trump why ‘no one listens to him or shows loyalty to him’ it is not clear why some very talented knowledgeable leaders surrounding him aren’t building at least a semblance of a construct from which leadership could grow.

Trump must be a powerful disease to have infected true talent that much.

There are a bunch of things that could turn this bizarre ship around but one, and only one, thing truly matters – will President Trump ever permit his mind to be enlightened. For that is the path out of the darkness that his administration tries to convince us we all live in as well as some of the darker more ignorant & naïve aspects of the current administration’s behavior.

Lastly.

I don’t care if you voted for Trump or not … you have to admit this whole situation is bizarre and he is a seemingly bizarre human being.

You may not agree with me that he is a fool but I cannot find one person who doesn’t think this whole presidency so far is just fucking bizarre.

“To quote a British observer of us from some years ago, bear with us, once we have exhausted all possible alternatives, the Americans will do the right thing.”

———–

James Mattis

================

Well.

Throughout my life & career I have crisscrossed the country walking into mechanic shops, retail stores, supermarkets, numerous hotels/motels/inns and bars & restaurants.

I went to a public high school with a mostly agriculture student attendance and went to a college where the Crips and Hoover Family Blood patrolled the edges of the campus <and had a gang member stabbed 75 times in the alley behind my off campus apartment>.

In addition I have received glimpses into the lives of Americans, rural/suburban/urban, behind the one way mirrors of research and face-to-face… in rural West Virginia & Kentucky, Wyoming, Ohio, Texas, Wisconsin, New York, California, New Mexico, Colorado and … well … pick your home and I have had a glimpse of your life.

I have met the least educated and the most educated <and you most likely would be surprised at how alike they are behind the façade of education> and felt hopeless at the hopelessness of some and found hope in the stories of those who had so much ‘no quit’ in them I felt less than worthy of my own efforts in Life.

I would suggest that what we all have in common in America is maddening. It is the fact we will exhaust all possible alternatives … and then, in most cases, do the right thing.

Love it or hate it … that is what we Americans do.

We are a stubborn folk we Americans. But I tend to believe the ‘exhausting all our aletrantives’ is simply the same gauntlet we run time and time again … “I” to “we”.

Almost every soege person when pushed into a corner <”no one puts Bby into a corner” type attitude> defended what is the most tried & true American ideal that every American in every corner of the country can pull out of their hip pocket – individual freedom. Freedom to think what I think, freedome to pray like I want to pray, freedom to say what I want to say, freedom to own a gun if I want, freedom to watch, do or go where I want.

Everything begins there.

That is the entrance to the gauntlet. And unlike Dante’s entrance to Hell which says “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate” — most frequently translated as “abandon all hope, ye who enter here” — the American entrance says “this way to something better.”

However, I feel compelled to point out that no matter how much you gussy up a gauntlet … it is still a gauntlet and while it may have some pretty pictures on the walls of the tunnel you are still gonna get the crap kicked out of you.

We don’t take the easy path. That’s just what we do. Despite the fact we talk about common sense or “the simplest is the best” incessantly … America inherently explores all and any alternatives, no matter how painful, until we arrive at what is right.

Mattis reminded me of this.

We never make it easy.

Trump may add a painful dynamic but even without him … we exhaust ourselves as we exhaust all alternatives.

But our history resides with arriving, ultimately, at the right thing. The arc of our gauntlet tunnel curves toward ‘doing the right thing’ versus ‘doing the wrong thing.’

I imagine my thought for today is twofold.

First is that there is no one person, or class of people, or type of person which ultimately places us in this ‘right thing’ place. This one place is arrived at by the fruits of labor of the many — out of many, one.

The second is that far too often we refer to the ‘many’, people, in demeaning or diminishing terms. We look at people who don’t think the way we do, people who voted for someone else or people who want to do something different than what we want to do as ‘stupid’ or ‘idiots’ or ‘ignorant.’

I can honestly say, having traveled the far corners of America, I would suggest we should maybe see other people as ‘good hearted’ or ‘well intended’ or ‘knows things I don’t know.’

I would also suggest that most people are willing to listen if you are respectful enough to listen to them.

I would also suggest that most people have a story and that story impacts how they think about things and how they decide what should be done with … well … “the we.”

Most people enter the gauntlet with an “I” perspective … even those who fully understand that we are a greater “we.” We do so because we are part of America which is built upon individual freedoms and each of us value our personal choice.

Amusingly <painfully so> it is that individual freedom which permits us the excruciating good conflict that not all the other “I’s” view their individual freedoms the same way. Therefore the gauntlet is alternative after alternative in which we are painfully bludgeoned into understanding that the “I” makes some compromises for the greater “we”. In addition … we go through the excruciating painful conflict which permits us to see 99% of the other ‘many’ have good hearts, are not really idiots and know shit that we do not know.

We enter the gauntlet as an “I” and come out with a larger respect for the “we.”

And it is that gauntlet which hones all the other alternatives into the one alternative which is ‘the right thing.’

Sometimes it helps to remind myself of this.

It helps especially when it doesn’t feel that way … especially when our Warrior Monk, Mattis, is forced to say it out loud to non-Americans. Because, in my mind, just the fact he has to say it means that we all need to be reminded of it.

And, maybe most importantly, as we think about this man … and his words … it permits us to reject the entire concept of “abandon hope all ye who enter” with all of us already who are in this concept called “America.”

Yeah.

It feels painful now. It feels more difficult than it has to be. It feels like there is even less alignment than maybe we had even a year ago.

But maybe it just feels like we are exploring all the alternatives along our way to exhaust all of them n our pursuit to the inevitable – Americans will do the right thing.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed. It is the only thing that ever has.”

—–

Margaret Mead

================

So.

I was listening to a bunch of talking heads on tv speculating on a staff shake up in the Trump white house personnel.

One thing I heard caught my attention … “well, part of the president’s issue is that he has kind of a hodgepodge of personnel.”

And that thought is correct. And it made me think a little bit.

The truth is once you move past managing a group or running a mom & pop sized business every management team you manage will be a hodgepodge of people, skills, personalities and … well … loyalty. Not only is it impossible to hire in ‘your people’ in every slot … most good leaders do not want to do that.

All that said.

To be clear.

Trump is possibly one of the crappiest senior leaders I have ever seen and he appears to have no belief that words matter and has no understanding of the concept of ‘communication alignment’ <let alone any alignment> … however … he is what he is. And because he is what he is … inconsistencies included … the staff he surrounds himself matters a shitload with regard to overall effectiveness.

What do I mean?

Trump forces his staff to adjust in real time as he communicates, and thinks, in real time.

Trump has never worked in a large organization nor has he ever truly had to manage a larger group of people, let alone senior executives.

He has always been the spokesperson and the brand and the final word … surrounded by family who was more than happy to simply double and triple down on whatever dad said <and be loyal to even his craziest tactical maneuvering and craziest words and wordsmithing>.

Real senior executives do not work that way nor is it a particularly effective method outside of a mom & pop structure.

In a real business organization you don’t get to pick & choose everyone in your circle … most times it is a hodgepodge of skills, personalities and experience. And you know what? You learn to manage them effectively because that is what a leader does.

You adapt some of you to accommodate some of them<yeah … sure … envision Trump doing that … uhm … sure … ain’t gonna happen>.

Trump is being forced out of his mom & pop management model into a more traditional larger business management model <and he is going kicking & screaming>.

Most people learn this as soon as they move from group management to department management <you cannot fire everyone and rehire only your people> and absolutely learn this lesson as soon as you move into the C-level positions.

Another aspect is when you get a position you do not treat it as an “I won so you need to …” but rather “I now get to lead and I am going to have to …”

All that said.

You learn some management personnel tricks to help you out.

I always tried to bring one person with me wherever I went as I moved up. Depending on the structure of the organization I always wanted at least one person who could “translate” me to the hodgepodge team. This wasn’t necessarily done to dictate my desires & behaviors onto a team but rather to help them align to how I managed so they could adapt and move faster.

I manage nothing like Trump but let’s assume Trump is moving into the presidency … it almost becomes mandatory for effectiveness that he has a team aligned on “what to do when Trump does his crazy.” He need a management team that doesn’t argue about what to do he needs a management team that absorbs the blow and moves out doing what needs to be done as the true power brokers for getting shit done.

By the way … this is not about loyalty to Trump this is about loyalty to most effectively getting good shit done. I didn’t care if people bitched about me behind my back <I always assumed they did> what I cared about is that they respected the general idea and invested their energy in trying to figure out how to best effectively implement the idea rather than invest energy trying to defend anything they really would have preferred just bitching about behind my back.

I always preferred loyalty to “getting good smart shit done”and always believed I would ultimately earn some respect if I <Me> always remained loyal to the idea of “enabling good smart shit to get done.”

Before I finish this thought I will admit my preference was always to try an bring in two foundational team members in order to kind of create some pillars … but you can get away with one to align a hodgepodge of managers & executives.

Anyway.

In an organization the size of a presidency Trump needs a translator but more importantly he needs an aligned team with regard to what to do with him and his behavior <and not be arguing over it>.

……… a Trump management team ………

Trump’s inclination will be with what he feels most comfortable with — family.

His next inclination will be with what makes him feel the best — the ones who unflinchingly try and power-broke the crazy <he would call them unflinching loyalists>.

Neither of those have anything to do with effective leadership nor do they have anything to do with effective ‘management of getting shit done.’

He has never been in a large organization nor has he managed a large group of people nor has he tried to get a large group of people aligned to agree & do some shit.

He naturally gravitates toward employees who don’t deliver bad news and those who deliver flattery.

They may feel good to have around but they are the absolute worst people to have on your management team. You only build a team like that if you have no interest in improving, no interest in any intellectual conflict <which is what actually sparks better ideas> and/or you are so insecure or arrogant <yes, you can be both> you don’t want any ideas other than your own.

Most often it is the senior leadership who challenges you that prompt new insights and help propel the group to success.

“You need people who have different points of view and aren’t afraid to argue. They are the kind of people who stop the organization from doing stupid things.”

Harvard Business Review

Look.

All leaders assume responsibility for a hodgepodge of senior managers. That’s what we do.

And we learn to set what expectations are and align on vision and encourage some flexibility & adapting and get going.

And we learn that some of what we do and what we think works a little better in one place than anther and that some people are better than we think at first blush and some people we really liked when we met them are worse than we thought.

And we learn that you don’t demand respect but rather earn it and loyalty is gained through respect.

I would imagine that engendering loyalty to Trump is hard in that up to this point loyalty most likely centered on fame & fortune. And most of us who have led in larger organizations understand that strong foundational loyalty is less about the tangible fame & fortune but rather respect. He is gonna have some problems with that.

I would imagine that effectiveness to Trump is blind support for him and what he says. And most of us who have led in larger organizations understand that effectiveness is less about support for what the leader says … but rather in structured response to a leader’s guidance & thoughts. I never wanted people to do what I said … I wanted people to do what needed to be done. He is gonna have some problems with that.

I would imagine that alignment to Trump is familial. And most of us who have led in a larger organization want the exact same thing … but we know we have a hodgepodge team who is ‘the family’ and we deal with it.

Would I shake up the Trump administration? Yeah. I surely would.

And I would do it almost exactly opposite of how I envision he is likely to do it.

He doesn’t understand there is a campaign team and now he needs an effective doing team. He bludgeoned us with his dull insights on the campaign trail and now he needs to focus more on action.

What would I do with his cadre of white men?

I, personally, would make Kushner my chief of staff. He has no fucking clue how to do the job but he knows the Trumpster better than anyone in the world.

Give him some deputies who have a shitload of government experience. Send Ivanka off to write a real book. And build a staff of Republican zealots who know how to get shit done. Trust the Kushner kid to translate what the Donald J crazy means to everyone.

Bannon can stay but he just needs to focus on feeding the Trump crazy and let Kushner kid deal with the crazy output.

Others <just off the top of my head>. I love Wilbur Ross. Mnuchin almost seems overwhelmed-giddy by being in the spotlight. I would find a sane version of Mulvaney to take his job. I would tell Tillerson to start hiring like a mad man and tell him he can fire whoever he doesn’t need once he actually has some staff to do some shit. Just get out of Mattis, McMaster and Kelly’s way. I can’t get rid of Sessions even though I think he is crazy <I think he thinks he lives in the 1950’s> but because he actually translates Trump crazy better than anyone other than maybe that little pit bull Lewandowski. I would wake up Carson, Perry, and all the other Cabinet members we haven’t heard a peep out of and ask them if they would like to participate in this circus.

I imagine my real point is that to be an effective leader of a hodgepodge group it is more important that THEY can work together than YOU like them.

Because if they can work together well than there is a better chance that the organization will not do stupid shit even if you make a stupid decision, your crazy will come to life as not-so-crazy pragmatism and knee-jerk spontaneous crazy asshat tweets simply get absorbed into seamless actions which make the tweets look a little less spontaneous, a little less knee jerk, a little less crazy … but still asshat because that is who you are.

And that is the value of a non-arguing hodgepodge group. They tend to mute the mistakes and crazy and amplify the actual good ideas and thoughts you may actually have.

If I were a management consultant for Trump <I would shoot myself> I would look at him as a lost cause … he is what he is. He is a flower <with thorns> and I would turn my attention to the environment the flower is growing in.

If I were a management consultant for Trump <I would shoot myself> I would find a team that maybe wasn’t on the “Trump train” but rather find competent people who can do shit that I want done <and let the chief of staff … who is on the Trump Train … get them doing Trump train shit>.

If I were a management consultant for Trump <I would shoot myself> I would turn to the Kushner kid and say “you wanted in … you are in. You are the Trump whisperer. Make shit happen.”

Let me be clear.

Trump will shake up his staff and maybe cabinet members and he will fuck it up. He has no idea how to manage a business organization other than in a mom & pop style and he has no innate leadership skills and his management instincts suck.

And he has no clue how to build an effective team <someone should tell him there is not enough room up his ass for all the people he actually needs to run a country let alone a viably larger sized organization>.

Oh. And he is a narcissistic asshat who believes no one knows better than he does.

In the end.

As I stated in my Trump 100 day piece … he did nothing in his first 100 days that would suggest the next 100 days <and foreseeable 100 day increments> would be any smoother, efficient or effective. I am 99% confident he will shake up his staff and management team and I cannot envision it proceeding smoothly, efficiently or effectively. Why? Because he has no clue what he is doing.

Truth has an, unfortunate, nasty habit of taking some time to work its way into the minds of people. Sometimes we hear something and kind of know that it sounds like Truth but remain skeptical. That is, of course, until we have gained some proof that what we ‘felt’ was really ‘real.’

I tend to believe many people felt that way about Donald J Trump during the election and as time has progressed that ‘feeling’ is being hardened into a truth.

This is happening not just in America … but globally too. Day by day Trump and his words and his actions hammer nail after nail sealing the truth in people’s minds.

Yesterday Trump put another nail into the populist coffin. Yesterday Emmanuel Macron decisively beat a smarter version of Trump, Le Pen, in the France election.

No one should doubt that Macron winning the France election is another global rejection of Trump. The backlash to a horrible America decision has echoed throughout elections around the world.

Other countries certainly feel the pangs of desire for some change of the status quo … but no other country wants to go about doing so by repeating the mistake America made <or Great Britain’s mistake>.

=============

“This win sends a clear signal that anti-EU populist parties are unable to secure a power base across the political landscape in continental Europe. This started with the presidential elections in Austria in December 2016, with a win by the Pro-European Alexander Van der Bellen, followed by the Dutch elections last March where centrist pro-European parties won the elections.

Now this trend has been echoed in France with a win by Emmanuel Macron, who has been campaigning on a pro-European agenda.”

—-

Michiel de Bruin

==============

To be clear.

Trump has done populism no favors since he has won.

If he had truly delivered upon his promise to be the one to ‘solve the problems of forgotten America’ populists around the world may have met a different fate.

Instead the negative rhetoric tied to lack of measurable activity doomed populist candidates around the world.

As I listened to Macron’s victory speech, given in front of a national cultural icon <The Louvre> and not some gold gilded Trump branded hotel, I heard the words of a leader who understood the future never resides in the past and fear but rather in being united and ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ <France’s version of “out of many, one”or even ‘stronger together’>.

Macron gave the speech we would actually expect of an American president … not one of fear nor bombastic “I won and you didn’t” but a tone to “calm people’s fears, restore France’s confidence, and gather all of its people together to face the immense challenges that face us in the future”.

It was almost the direct opposite of a Trump speech which tends to be a “join, or else” message to a divided country.

With Macron, a 39 year old, it was a message of hope and of renewed confidence. It contained sober pragmatic thoughts of a message spoken with open eyes and open mind … recognizing that many people did not necessarily vote for him but, rather, against the other … recognizing that many doubted him and his beliefs for France … and recognizing that he was going to have to work to unite a divided France.

We should note that not only did Trump not utter any of those words in victory … he has never uttered those words since.

Look.

No one should misunderstand me … populism and nativism still exists and the ideas that have given them a voice, some of which should be heard, are being incorporated into what ‘will be.’ Populism certainly is reshaping policy, interests and the dialogue – in some good ways and in some bad ways.

The truly good ideas which should be heard are stopping policymakers and making them think a little harder.

The bad aspects of populism are making everyone stand up and speak up about what is important from a moral standpoint.

Populism has made life a little harder than it was before but … well … nothing good is easy.

Regardless.

Populism still exists but Trump has done as good a job as anyone to take some air out of its balloon.

I would suggest the France election showcases proof of several things:

First.

Your voice matters. It doesn’t matter of you feel forgotten, if you feel slighted, if you feel angry or even if you feel nothing … your vote, your actions, your words all matter. Everyone truly can make a difference and contribute to the bending of the arc of history.

Second.

Hope is more attractive than fear … united is more appealing than divided.

When cornered into having to make a choice people will step away from their fears and step toward hope.

When cornered into having to make a choice people will step away from exclusiveness and step toward inclusiveness.

Notice I didn’t say ‘embrace’ but rather ‘step toward.’

This is a nuance Trump will never understand. But the everyday person does … especially if given a little time to ponder the issue.

Countries prefer to be united behind an idea, behind hope and behind aspirations. And while fear and ‘retreating upon oneself as a way to make one

stronger’ sounds slightly appealing … a country recognizes that no matter what they do it is a globalized world and that … well … e pluribus unum —Latin for “Out of many, one.”

While I wish United States would remember the words that reside on our currency the new France leader remembers it and I believe recognizes the change at hand.

Out of many, one.

Well done France. I seriously doubt you will regret your choice.

If a country ceases to be good, a country will cease to be great.

==========================

“There are more ideas on earth than intellectuals imagine. And these ideas are more active, stronger, more resistant, more passionate than “politicians” think.

We have to be there at the birth of ideas, the bursting outward of their force: not in books expressing them, but in events manifesting this force, in struggles carried on around ideas, for or against them. Ideas do not rule the world. But it is because the world has ideas (and because it constantly produces them) that it is not passively ruled by those who are its leaders or those who would like to teach it, once and for all, what it must think.”

“Maybe we feel empty because we leave pieces of ourselves in everything we used to love.”

―

R. M. Drake

========================

“… ’Tis not for the victory, though, that we shall weep: there is nothing altered in that but the soul looks upon things with another eye and represents them to itself with another kind of face; for everything has many faces and several aspects.”

—

Michel de Montaigne

==========================

Ok.

The Trump administration’s 1st 100 days.

On the 94th day <today> of the Trump administration I am going to share my semi-unenlightened point of view on the first 100 days … mostly because I cannot envision any significant changes on the items I am judging the administration on in the next 6 days <and it seems like everyone else wants to judge them on other things>.

Regardless.

Suffice it to say that I see some fairly concerning hollowness. What I mean by that is after 100 days one could highlight a variety of empty spots which … well … will dog the administration from day 101 forward.

Now.

Before someone wants to suggest 100 days isn’t fair to judge or “how can you fairly assess someone and something in 100 days” I will state two things:

Read my assessment below. I will judge based off of my own business experience and, yes, I have endured absorbing a $100 million plus piece of business into an organization, have been part of several significant sized company mergers <think two top 12 national banks merging> as well as a onboarding a variety of difference sized and complex businesses and seen what it takes from operations, skills ramp up, process, accounting and the basic transferal of knowledge and project lists to insure nothing gets dropped.

Any time anyone ever pushes back on “100 days is not realistic” I refer to Napoleon.

A shitload can happen in 100 days if you know what you are doing, are a good leader and have a great support <management> team.

In fact you can gather almost 100,000 personnel and the materials needed to sustain them and move them hundreds of miles and get them to perform at the highest level if you really have your shit together.

100 days is a lifetime if you use it well.

Businesses can dither around and make excuses but if you cannot get something done in 100 days you should probably be looking for some other business to conduct.

If someone <Napoleon> can swing almost 100,000 men into action and in a span of three or four days of battle at the end of 100 days almost win a victory when outnumbered and out resourced it seems pretty logical that we in business can certainly make a widget in 100 days.

Of course … Trump would call Napoleon a loser.

Anyway.

That said. Trump administration and 100 days.

Now.

On a daily basis we get bludgeoned with so much shit from the Trump administration it is difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Suffice it to say there are so many things wrong it is a waste of time to point out any of the good. Most of the wrong things are larger structural issues which are … well … concerning.

So while Donald J Trump invests his energy trying to point out ‘things’ or, if I wanted to be generous, tactical activity, and signing a lot of documents … we should be more concerned about the structural activity, & inactivity, which just took place in the first 100 days.

As usual … I will not provide my judgement based on politics but rather through the lens of a business guy. Having endured a number of “first 100 days” I know what it takes and I know how if you get the 1st 100 days wrong it dogs you for … well … it dogs you. Suffice it to say you only make the “wow, I royally screwed up the first 100 days” once as a manager/leader.

You either get fired or you have learned the lesson so painfully you never permit it to happen again.

That said.

Here you go.

Hiring

In my Napoleon post I make a point about his most famous loss … from a business perspective the key to the Waterloo loss <to me> was simple. Napoleon didn’t have his tried & true chief of staff, Marshal Berthier, on this campaign.

Napoleon sorely missed the legendary Marshal Berthier as chief of staff, and Marshal Soult <his replacement> was a good, but not as good, substitute.

Oh.

And there was a domino effect on the entire management team as people shifted to assume slightly new roles.

Napoleon came within a whisker of winning at Waterloo … after only 100 days. One could argue that with his chief of staff the right little things would have happened and the wrong little things would have been minimized — and he would have won after 100 days.

Regardless.

One of the things you unequivocally know as a business leader is the best plans in the world aren’t worth a shit if you do not have the people to implement them. Yeah. Nothing kills a plan faster than no people to implement.

Trump has doubly failed on hiring … and this will dog him way beyond the 100 days it has already dogged him.

Doubly?

He first failed by not having the key people in place <as much as he could> on day one … to start running on day one. If you have a 100 day plan, and you actually plan on doing the plan in 100 days, you have to burst out of the starting gate … not amble … or stumble.

I would have identified the key people <not just Cabinet members but also midlevel & on-the-ground people> and had everyone all lined up to go. It’s your only chance to get a 100 day plan done.

That did not happen. Not even close. That is an F <and, to complete this point, Mattis and Kelly were excellent ‘hires’ … but Mattis still has something like 150 open posts under him>.

He secondly failed by not having the key people in place by the end of 100 days. This is not about cabinet members … this is about the people who keep the ship/shit running and who get the shit done. It is possible you can be forgiven for not being ready at the starting gate but if you are not … it is unforgivable to not have your main priority within your first 100 days to have a plan to have everyone in place by day 101.

That is business malpractice if not done.

He doesn’t need to hire all the open positions because I am fine with eliminating some unnecessary jobs … but … every sane business person in the world errs on the side of loading up on personnel upfront not only to insure all the shit gets done but not everyone is going to work out so the organization naturally thins out anyway.

This is an F. I would give lower if there was anything lower. This is going to dog him for … well … too long for the country’ sake.

Competence

“Ten times Trump asked her (Merkel) if he could negotiate a trade deal with Germany,” the newspaper quoted a senior German politician as saying.

“Every time she replied, ‘You can’t do a trade deal with Germany, only the EU’,” the politician said. “On the eleventh refusal, Trump finally got the message, ‘Oh, we’ll do a deal with Europe then.'”

Ok.

I would guess over 50% of everyday Americans would not know, because of the EU, that USA doesn’t negotiate one-on-one trade deals with European countries.

I would also guess over 95% of everyday Americans would have no clue whether Korea has ever been part of China.

I would also guess that over 75% of everyday Americans wouldn’t know that Korea is actually a peninsula and not an island.

I would actually guess that over 90% of Americans already knew that healthcare was really complicated.

But I would guess that 99.9% of Americans would like their president to know all this shit.

As a business person all of this ignorance is unacceptable. It is unacceptable because it is exactly like walking into a huge sales meeting without doing your homework.

And as for “learning & adapting”?

Sure. I give business people credit for that all the time … but not if it is something 99% of your peers already had learned and it was common knowledge.

You don’t get credit for simply catching up to what all of us already knew.

For god’s sake … I know all this shit and I am not even close to being qualified to being the President.

The majority of the time he is skating on the incredibly thin ice of the slippery surface of irrelevance. I am not sure how anyone could grade him higher than an F if I can point out that 90% of the entire country knew something he didn’t know … that this is all complicated.

So far his competence has skated on irrelevance & simple-minded. The Olympic skating judges would give him a 1.

The business judges would give him an F.

Corruption

This is the sword of Damocles. Or maybe it is the Pit and the Pendulum.

I do not begrudge a business person hesitating to cut themselves off from what has most likely been their lifeblood & soul since they can remember starting to breathe … but this is crazy.

The Trump family and half of his Cabinet, let alone close friends, will most likely benefit from how he thinks & what he thinks should be done. It will reek of corruption as we try and disentangle what is truly just a good idea and what is an idea driven by what will benefit them <and even then someone will have to disentangle whether that is simply the outcome of what is best for everyone or simply a skewed-billionaire-warped-view of what is good for everyday schmucks like me>.

I am not smart enough to figure out how to create enough distance so we can assess ideas fairly, and corruption issues fairly, but what I do know is that I am smart enough to have resolved it within the first 100 days. Not just for the image of things but because it will dog every recommendation, every tactic, every decision and everything discussed from day 101 until … well … whenever.

This is like carrying a backpack filled with 100 pounds of rocks while you try and run a 100 yard dash. And then saying at yard 101 … “what the hell, let’s keep the back pack on, and full of rocks, and lets run the rest of the race.”

I give an F for not even dealing with it and an ‘incomplete’ on actual corruption because we need to see real policy to judge who benefits and who doesn’t.

Discourse

It has almost become this alternative universe in which because my new boss has no filter and scatters random facts, lies and hyperbole like an autumn wind blows leaves in your gutters clogging them all up and rotting the house unseen.

In this alternative universe everyone who works for my new boss, even smart people and savvy politicians, can start saying stupid things under the guise of ‘being unfiltered truth tellers.’ Trump’s blunt high school discourse style is bleeding into the entire administration discourse.

In other words … the discourse has lowered to a place a snake could jump over it.

What do I mean?

When someone like Jeff Sessions, a seemingly heinous man but a savvy politician, barrels into a conversation referring to Hawaii <an actual state in the United States>, disdainfully, as “an island in the middle of the Pacific” that feels like a ripple affect empowerment of the boss standards/style than it does of someone who really knows better <that they are a role model>.

And then there is Spicey <Sean Spicer> who seems semi-qualified, experienced and not stupid and, yet, day after day he stands up in a press briefing room spewing … well … stupidity.

Okay. That was harsh

Let me say it better.

Donald J Trump is encouraging everyone in his administration to be a little bit lazier with how thoughtful they are in how they say things. I am sure they would argue I am tainted by the heinous ‘political correctness’ disease but I would suggest back to them that words matter, words can create some unintended beliefs on intentions <speaker’s and administration> and words can actually encourage some distinct behavior & attitudes.

If they were in a bar, I wouldn’t care. They are the leaders of 330 million people.

I would encourage them to embrace the good aspects of political correctness and embrace a civil discourse, respect & dignity for all 50 states/330 million people/all the countries around the world, and stop being lazy with thinking about what they say.

Oh.

The only place we have seen solid discourse is the military cabinet members. Stellar communication. Mostly unseen by majority of Americans Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Army Gen. Joseph Votel, the chief of Central Command, gave a press conference … in the midst of confusing communication from everyone else in the administration, the president included, was refreshingly clear & candid.

Sigh <again>.

On discourse … I can’t even grade the administration because I want to drop them back several grades to elementary school and have some English teacher remind them of proper use of adjectives, adverbs and general punctuation.

I dream about the day Trump can put together a coherent paragraph.

Society cannot take another couple hundred days of this style of discourse let alone the first 100 days we have endured.

We are becoming worse as people through the type of communication & discourse taking place by this administration. That deserves an F.

Coordination, collusion or clueless.

This Russia thing. Whew. This thing just will not go away.

At minimum it just looks like coordination <not collusion>.

What do I mean?

Someone, maybe someones, in the Trump campaign had access to some good juicy information and they handed it over to Trump, who would never in a million years think or ask whether he should use it <because (a) he does not care if something is true or not if it sounds good, and (b) all he cares about is making news and winning> and he used it.

Or someone whispered in Trump’s ear some juicy conspiracy theory and he jumped at the chance to sling it out there and that someone <or someones> mentioned to the juicy information providers Trump was jumping on something and they set their trolls out to make it seem like it was real & viable.

The difficulty is there may be nothing there … but they seem like they are hiding something by constantly denying … well … everything … only to be proven wrong and it certainly seems too coincidental in a variety of ways to be random.

Look.

The president’s issue is one of two things … he was either complicit or he was naïve. I cannot envision either of those two things being publicly spewed forth in the media, by the media, will be palatable to the narcissistic ‘I have a big brain’ Donald J Trump.

But … you know how to make the Russia thing go away? Someone should tell the president to stop tweeting crap and stand up and say “here is who met Russian people during the campaign, what they said, and from here on out no matter how much you dig there is no more.”

Just a side note to the silly people who say “no Russian made someone vote some way.” You really can’t believe that. Not if you have ever had a career in advertising & marketing. Effective communications can inspire people to think & do things. Effective propaganda can inspire people to think stupid things and do stupid things.

All that said.

Hanging over the administration neck is either coordination, collusion or cluelessness.

Pick your poison … you may not die from it but it is surely painful now and will remain painful.

Here is where they earn their business management F — any quasi-competent public relations person will say “stop ignoring this and kill it now … or it is going to dog you for the next foreseeable 100 day increments.” As long as this issue stays alive you may as well place another 25 pounds of rocks in the backpack you are already carrying <with rocks already in it>.

The plan: vision, roadmap, tactics & strategies

We are watching 100 day business malpractice on this item on the report card.

There is no plan.

We have heard no vision.

We haven’t really been offered a tactical plan of action <and how the tactics would be implemented>.

And I certainly haven’t heard any strategies to meet any articulated objective.

Sure.

Some of the things he does certainly sends an “American First” message … but they are verbally driven tactics <not tangible doing stuff>. As for the long game … well … there is no long game. It smells of a short term amateur leader saying to his people at the table “I need to do something, anything, tell me what my options are because I am going to do something.”

So far the only roadmap I have seen is “they have no coherent strategy and will act impulsively” combined with “a leader anxious to use his military to make a point.”

This is malpractice.

And I say that and I am not even a big “plan” guy.

But every 100 day scenario I have ever been part of has created a road map to get shit done and what objectives we were aiming for and an overall vision so that the people on the ground never lost the North Star. Everyone finds that the roadmap has changed a bit at the 100 day mark, and that some things are done and others are not … but … at day 101 everyone is still going north and all the troops know what battle they are preparing for and you gather up the wins as wins and the losses are usually simply shit you just couldn’t get to.

Ok.

This is not malpractice … this is criminal.

This is the kind of shit every business leader can do in their sleep <not always well but can do>.

This is the kind of criminal activity that pisses other, more competent, business people off … because it is basic foundational “how to run a business” stuff.

I wouldn’t give an F … I would expel them from school — fire them.

Image

I tossed this one in here because by America being a global leader, at the end of a 100 days, it’s nice to assess the world’s view of the country image. In addition … I know image is important to Donald J Trump <oh, I mean mostly his own image is important>.

There are two parts to this one – domestic image & global image.

Domestic image

I will give him credit.

He is doing everything in his power to make himself look great <again and again>. He signs more pieces of paper under the spotlight than anyone has ever done before <bigly> as well as bolts on hyperbole to everything he says and about what he does do <biggest, greatest, only, no one else/before, etc> . Let me address the ‘doing’ image part first.

Here is the truth behind all those paper signing events:

Like most of Trump’s regulatory executive orders, Friday’s presidential actions will have little effect by themselves. Instead, Trump will instruct regulators to reexamine existing rules with an eye to rescinding them. But that process of deregulation can be as complicated as the original regulations, requiring the Treasury Department to ask for public comment and conduct a legal analysis.

And Mnuchin said the orders don’t give him any authority he doesn’t already have. “The purpose of the orders is to make clear what the administration’s and the president’s priorities are, and signal the importance of these issues to the American people,” he said.

The actions to be signed Friday include one executive order and two similar directives called presidential memoranda. In his first 92 days, Trump has now signed 25 executive orders and 15 presidential memoranda.

He is a paper signer and really not a doer. He is a transactional president seeking desperately for a transaction to own.

Dropping bombs? Transaction.

Travel ban? Attempted transaction.

Sending armada to intimidate? Faux transaction.

His domestic image is teetering on his hollow entertainment spotlight experiences. He teeters on the line of “wow, I am doing a lot of shit and meeting promises” and “incompetent bumbling.”

When others see his approval ratings they see good approval among minority & disapproval among majority. I do not. I see a population sitting on the sidelines watching the game with skepticism.

If you look behind the surface numbers you will see everyone expresses deep doubts & concerns <overall> but jump on semi-competent Trump behavior to express positive reinforcement … in other words … many people are actively seeking to find something positive to say <that is viewing the research through a people behavioral lens>.

The way to wrap your head around the contradictory information is to simply say that while people have some serious doubts they have not given up on him & the administration yet<that is a hollow win for Trump which he can take advantage of or lose as time progresses>.

The Republicans remain hopefully skeptical and the Democrats are in skeptically in despair that he has shown no improvement <but desperately want some improvement>.

I could argue that the Trump domestic image is in a huge world of hurt … but just as easily I could argue the Donald J Trump administration domestic image is positioned for huge success.

What I do know is that the first 100 days have been wasted in not actually building a solid image and yet the administration has worked extensively to build the appearance of a solid image.

Every business person with half a brain knows that this is not sustainable. At some point the façade needs a house built behind it.

Skepticism is like a virus. Untreated it can kill you.

They deserve no grade on this because they are at home sick — let’s hope, for the country’s sake, they get well soon.

Global image

Trump has a big issue … it is a … well … all country-by-country global image issue. While he sees unpredictability as a positive the rest of the world simply sees “making it up as he goes” and “he doesn’t know what the hell he is doing.”

While Trump vocalizes positive thoughts about Marine Le Pen surveys continue to show the majority of France just think he is nuts.

While Trump talks about … well … everything … the Russian media swings back & forth on positive <anti typical American moralistic establishment> and negative <loose cannon who doesn’t have the consistent leadership skills of Putin>.

He has pissed off a number of countries either through ignorant talk <naivete> or less-than-diplomatic direct interactions. The rest of the world absolutely sees he loves playing with soldiers & gun & bombs but is less sure he loves knowing how the world actually works.

All I can say is that, after 100 days, television in the USA is constantly seeking to find the silver lining in every breath he takes … while global television simply laughs – at him and at the USA.

Every business person knows image isn’t everything … but it is part of the whole thing. Style AND substance matters. Right now I would grade the image as “incomplete.” It remains mostly hollow now but … given the right focus and effort … it can be filled in a way that builds a good solid image <but I am not holding my breath>.

Okay.

That is my main report card … not so good for Donald J Trump through a business guy’s lens.

Oh.

But I do have one more thing.

They will not judge themselves on this one but I sure as shit am.

Message to our young people

We have about 75 million young people under the age of 18. They watch, listen and discuss among themselves what is going on. They watch, listen and think as we adults discuss among ourselves what is being said and going on.

Because we have a combative, narcissistic, intellectual-curious-challenged president it seems like all communications are developed and communicated as if they are designed to one specific audience – it is almost like they think in a one-to-one communication tunnel <by the way … many politicians, in general, edge into this territory it is just the Trump administration has set up home in this territory>.

If it is supposed to be a message to democrats it is a “you suck & are a loser” message.

If it is supposed to be a message to the media it is a “you lie and are fake” message.

If it is supposed to be a message to the world it is “there is no we, only I matters.”

If it is supposed to be a message to Americans on why something was not done it is “someone else is to blame.”

<note: watch this last one arise to a crescendo this week … blaming democrats, establishment, unicorns, media, karma & any Republican he can point a finger at — but never himself>

Sigh.

It is so misguided with regard to how we want our youth to think it can make you sad if you think about it too much.

Now.

That said.

I was livid when scanning a moment in a press briefing the other day where Sean Spicer, obviously channeling Trump, aggressively stated “somehow the Democrats are trying to position the recent Georgia 6th district election as a win, it was a loss. They lost. There is no other way to look at it. They lost.”

<envision my head exploding here>

Okay.

Listen up you assholes … what this tells children is that if 25 kids are in a race 1 is a winner, the other 24 are losers. This suggests that even if you weren’t even supposed to finish the race of 25 … and you finished 10th you shouldn’t celebrate … because you lost … and you are a loser.

Sorry Sean <and your sorry administration> … fuck you.

I know you want to send a direct message to Democrats, which in your pea-like brain are the only people who exist in this country you plan on making great again, but there are 330 million people and , maybe more importantly, maybe 75 million young people watching, listening & discussing the shit <words> you say.

Where is respect for competition & your competitors?

Where is dignity in the win?

Where is how you play, and how you win, is maybe more important than winning?

Where is the fact that, in times of despair, moral victories are what people use to get up again the next morning, to pick up their weapon and walk into another battle, to tell their child that they shouldn’t quit because maybe that had got one step farther … while still ending one step behind?

Where is that … you shitheads?

You may think you are communicating your asshat thoughts directly to one audience and one audience alone … but everything you say is communicating with 330 million people. Ponder that you assholes.

On this judgement I will not give them a grade … I will just say they are losers.

And they lose every time they pull this shit.

Anyway.

Conclusion.

100 days performance.

Yeah.

Judging on 100 days is fair.

Judge the little shit if you want … how he is meeting “his promises” if you want <NPR did a nice job of listing all the promises out for you — see below>.

In my mind that is the wrong way to judge the 1st 100 days — although the politicians & pundits seem to be making it the way to develop the Trump report card. The promises, at best, are tactics. Mostly they were simply soundbites to energize listeners.

I could also argue that if a promise was stupid in the first place isn’t it just stupid to do it … let alone give someone credit for doing it?

Anyway.

If you judge Donald J Trump and his administration solely on promises made/promises, you simply join him skating on the incredibly thin ice of the slippery surface of irrelevance.

We should want to see the roadmap, the vision, the strategy, objectives and throw in some tactics if you want … and hire some frickin’ people to get it all done <not just some promises made & met>.

I want to see the organizational infrastructure necessary to lead, build & implement a plan <if a plan is ever developed>.

Overall they don’t deserve even an F.

It is a 100 days empty of what would make the following 100 day increments unfold effectively & efficiently. Strip away “promises met” and focus on the more important larger construct of “who” will make “what” happen and the Trump administration on day 101 looks an awful lot like what they did on day 1. This would suggest that not only should we expect the exact same

“It is perchance without reason that we attribute to simple-mindedness and ignorance to the readiness to believe and to be convinced.

For it seems to me that I once learned the belief was, as it were, an impression that was made on our minds, and that, the softer and less resistant the mind, the easier it was to imprint something on it.

As the scale of the balance must necessarily sink when weights are placed upon it, so the mind must yield to clear proof. The more empty and without counterpoise the mind is, the more easily the scale sinks under the weight of the first argument.”

—-

Michel de Montaigne

=================================

Murphy’s Third Law

Nothing is ever so simple as it first seems

======================================

Ok.

……….. listening to Trump nonsense ………..

There are times I listen to something Donald J Trump says and I am torn between laughing so hard my sides hurt and banging my head on the table.

The one recurring ‘something’ we keep hearing is his statements that “no one knew it was this complicated” or the other version … “its not that easy.”

Really ??!!??

No one?

Uhm.

I am not the president and I cannot even fathom the sheer weight of responsibility & decision-making. But in my fairly common career I have seen the inner workings of the complex healthcare industry, the inner workings of what it takes to make a global organization set standards & meet standards, the inner workings of a complex energy grid industry delivering electricity across the country, the inner workings of complex manufacturing, the inner workings of a successful complex customer service initiative in a global hospitality brand … shit … even a small business is complex … and, well ,,, almost every industry between sales, service, production, , financial management, operations, regulatory, multi-channel distribution and management is complicated.

Suffice it to say … there is never ‘one part’ … there are always lots of moving parts … some in your control and some not in your control, therefore, there is never simplicity.

So when he gives us a smug look of concern and says “whew, this shit is complicated”… I say … well … no shit Sherlock <and think of Scooby responding to something Shaggy said>.

Look.

99% of business leaders know everything is complex … nothing is simple.

80% of people, everyday schmucks like me, are fairly sure everything is more complex than it often appears to be <and how we talk about it>.

But apparently our 1 president was convinced that everything was straightforward, simpler than others were making it out to be … and he was the “only one who could solve it.”

What a stupidfuck thing to say … and think.

As I noted in my “last stand of the old white men’ piece … I know we have had most of the intelligence & critical thinking in us scraped out by the ”simplicity is everything” knife but you would think that the creators of this ‘hollow communications initiative’, the 60 & 70somethings, would not really believe the shit they’ve been selling us for years.

You would think that they wouldn’t really believe that everything can be communicated in an elevator speech or three bullet point or some PowerPoint slide.

Ok.

Ok. Maybe most do know that … but Trump seems to have missed the message.

————–

Communication.

Effective communication has been, and always will be, complex and complicated … and a good thing for society. Effective communication inevitably feeds into the minds and enlightenment of the listeners. If you dumb down communication inevitably you dumb down the listeners.

Old white men hollowed out communication. I imagine as they hollowed out everything else they found it inherently more productive to gain their objectives by hollowing out communication. Everything became soundbites, powerpoint bullet points and ‘elevator speeches.’ Effectively communicating complexity took on less importance than puncturing the mind with a quick sharp stab <and then walking away>. Old white men mastered the art of emptying communication to a point where businesses end up walking on the slippery surface of irrelevance <cloaked in a beautiful robe called “what is important for you to know.”>

That is Trump in a nutshell.

—————–

Anyway.

I don’t need my president to be a Mensa member. Shit. They don’t even have to know big words or have a good brain. But I do need them to be intellectually curious, interested in learning and have at least a passing interest in history <or historical precedent>.

If I were generous toward Trump I could suggest much of what we are watching, in painful real time, is that he simply didn’t know what the hell he was talking about <the facts of the issue> … and now he does.

If I were less than generous I would hearken back to the Montaigne thought I shared upfront the softer and less resistant the mind, the easier it was to imprint something on it. The more empty and without counterpoise the mind is, the more easily the scale sinks under the weight of the first argument.

I use that thought because … well … one could quite easily be convinced someone who publicly states “no one knew it was this complicated” <when pretty much everyone already knew> would be someone who had a ‘more empty and without counterpoise mind.’

If I had lost all my generosity I would be tempted to suggest that Trump is a double whammy … <a> a blank slate mentally and <b> only sees round holes where he looks.

Huh? Simple minds see problems as simple ‘holes’ to be filled by jamming in whatever peg is at hand.

I am not sure Trump has any real policies, just a bunch of pegs in hand to jam into holes, but if he does … they are so poorly constructed and so weakly held that, literally, one would assume the final decision filter is really the only thing he holds dear – his ego, his ‘brand’, his wallet.

People should ponder that last thought as they discuss a scary, possibly misguided, belief that Trump’s tendency is to take up the position of the last person he spoke with on any given issue – because that may be too simplistic.

His dazzling combination of little knowledge, no practical organizational management experience, a lack of ideological commitment to anything and an ongoing puzzlement that things just aren’t as simple as he believed <or he believed anyone believed> suggests we are in for a rough ride.

Why?

Because the empty mind will sink against the weight of <a> the first argument which <b> meets his ego/brand.

Sigh.

“No one knew it was this complicated.”

I am at a loss for words … so … the more empty and without counterpoise the mind is, the more easily the scale sinks under the weight of the first argument. <Michel de Montaigne>

I try to not call Donald J Trump an idiot out of business respect <you assume anyone who can run a business knows something you don’t know> but, whew, he makes it more & more difficult every day.

CJ: “The guy across the street is beating up a pregnant woman. You don’t go over there and try and stop it?”

Toby: “The guy across the street is beating up anybody, I like to think I go over and try and stop it. But we aren’t talking about the President going to Asia or the President going to Rwanda or the President going to Qumar. We’re talking about the President sending other people’s kids to do that.”

CJ: “That’s always what we’re talking about and in addition to being somebody’s kids they’re soldiers and sailors, and if we’re about freedom from tyranny then we’re about freedom from tyranny and if we’re not we should shut up.”

“And to establish justice and promote the general welfare,” C.J. shoots back. “Stand by while atrocities are taking place and you’re an accomplice.”

But Toby wants a real answer to the question, “...Why are you sending your kids across the street?”

After a moment, C.J. has an answer,“‘Cause those are somebody’s kids, too.”

Chemical warfare is different. Yeah. I just said that. It redefines the rules of engagement and it should redefine how one views solutions.

Look.

I have never been in the military and, I assume, killing another is something you never become comfortable with … but you have a job to do, an objective to meet and if someone is willing to kill you to stop you from that objective your responsibility, in part, is to have to kill those standing in the path of the objective.

I cannot envision it is ever done indiscriminately and knowing as many military people as I do … I know that objectives are rarely flippantly arrived at nor is killing the enemy a desire but rather a necessary evil of the objective.

Snipers have a specific objective. It is a job they are assigned and, I assume, that is how they can sleep at night.

Soldiers have specific objectives. It is a job they are assigned in which the enemy is tasked with killing them to stop them from their objective and they must respond in kind, I assume, that is how they can sleep at night.

Pilots have smart bombs, specific targets and work under the scrutiny of ethical behavior and, I assume, that is how they can sleep at night.

Officers assess specific objectives, assess costs & losses and get paid to make the tough go-or-no-go decisions and and, I assume, that is how they can sleep at night.

All of those things are never easy but always a discriminating choice of ‘do this and don’t do that’ where targets are selected and decisions made.

The use of chemical weapons is indiscriminate killing.

Specificity is neither an objective not a vision. It is the way of cowards and those unwilling to set objectives worth working for.

I will never suggest warfare is easy nor will I suggest focusing solely on specificity is a fair assessment of ethical or moral behavior on an issue which has some grayish edges once battle begins. But there is no grayish area on chemical warfare. It is black … only black.

Let’s be clear.

Assad is a legal president of a UN represented country.

But.

“Stand by while atrocities are taking place and you’re an accomplice.”

There are no palatable solutions only slightly more palatable of unpalatable solutions. But standing by and doing nothing is not a solution.

What would I do?

Declare Assad a war criminal. It automatically makes him illegal in the eyes of the world and unworthy of leadership & governing.

Call Russia … say “Assad is your puppet … find another one.” In my eyes Trump is in for a penny or in for a pound with Russia being involved in the Syrian regime, and America not being involved, … if Syria is to be Russia’s puppet state then let them do what they did in Chechnya and … well … a number of ex-soviet states … pick a new leader and prop him up. Just make sure he is not war criminal worthy.

Destroy chemical supplies.Send in soldiers if we must … use air force … I don’t care … and I don’t care if Syrian soldiers get killed in the cleansing. That is their cost for maintaining a supply. Oh. And warn Russia that if they have any Russians embedded in possible target locations … they will die also.

I am no moralist nor am I smart enough to distinguish nuances in moral arguments … and I clearly understand that not all “atrocities are created equal.”

But I do know that the choice to do nothing means — “stand by while atrocities are taking place and you’re an accomplice.”

Chemical warfare is indiscriminate killing. It demands a discriminating action.

I am relatively confident President Donald J Trump has no moral compass and I am absolutely confident President Donald J Trump has no desire to have the United States stand as a ‘beacon of moral leadership” globally … so I would appeal to one thing: “’cause those are somebody’s kids, too.”